I think your logic is pretty sound. One other thing about sea salt is not all sea salt is the same so it may have different levels of nitrates/ites in them. Oftentimes knowing the amount is important for safety sake.Cabonaia wrote:I tried curing some bacon with just sea salt - a very grey salt my wife buys in 20 lb sacks. After a week or so in a dry cure, the bacon came out quite pink/cured looking. I hot smoked it and it tastes exactly like bacon cured with pink salt (cure #1). I did 2 slabs side/by/side, one with just the sea salt and one with cure #1 and sea salt. They were the same, which probably means my bacon with seat salt AND #1 had a lot of nitrite in it.
Made the just-sea salt version for a friend whose daughter gets migraines, and they suspect nitrites/nitrates. Her daughter consumed my sea salt bacon without any problem. They normally buy "nitrate/nitrite-free bacon" from Trader Joe's, which is cured with celery juice powder. My wife bought some celery-juice powder cured pastrami from the same store, and it had nitrite burn - a translucent green shimmer! Ugh. Anyone concerned with cured meats in their diets should stay away from that wholesome stuff, it would seem.
I wholeheartedly agree about the celery juice. Bacon sold "nitrate free" using this stuff has been shown to have much higher levels of nite's than traditional - but its better for you right?